how "flexible" is the changing hardware statement. i mean: if i add or remove hard disks, video card, cpu or motherboard do i retain the win10 license?. Which hardware items am i able to change to not invalidate win10 license? thanks
There is some FUD in this thread, so let me clear it up. There is currently a discrepancy between what the license allows and what the practical circumstances are. License: As far as your Windows 10 license is concerned, if you upgraded from Windows 8, then you have the equivalent of the old retail licenses, i.e. you have full transfer rights. From the Windows 10 Software License Terms: Your Windows 8 Upgrade is stand-alone software. You can read the Windows 10 Software License Terms in any activated Windows 10 in the system properties. Practical reality: Currently, if you install Windows 10 on a new computer, you would need a product key to activate it. As you don't get one during the upgrade process, at the moment you can't directly activate Windows 10 on a new computer. You can, as others suggested, install your old Windows 8/8.1 then upgrade. Hence at the moment technological limitations prevent you from exercising your rights given to you by Microsoft in the License Terms. One thing that could be tried in principle is to use phone activation: install Windows 10 on new computer, then when it comes to activation, phone up Microsoft and explain it to them. Hopefully within the next year Microsoft will come up with a solution to this problem. PS: Don't listen to people who tell you that the Windows 10 license is hardware bound, it's not if you have transfer rights. The activation is hardware bound, meaning that you can do a clean reinstall of Windows 10 without a product key on a PC where it was activated once, but not on a new PC. This limitation however doesn't take away your license rights.
that's the fact, the upgrade isn't really free, it's just a delay to buying a full version. no one on the phone could help you then after this year.
I don't understand what you are saying. I just explained in the post you quote that the upgrade gives you full rights, including transfer rights, if it's from Windows 7 Retail, Windows 8 Upgrade or Windows 8.1 Retail. Microsoft will have a legal obligation to honour those rights, the activation system notwithstanding.
This is still very unclear to me (Also, I don't trust online support people to know everything ). They have said (Assuming this is right, not sure if it can be counted as an official statement): If you upgrade from a retail version, it carries the rights of a retail version. If you upgrade from a OEM version, it carries the rights of a OEM version. If you can't move the updated windows 10 to a different system, I don't see how it retained retail rights in any way Especially since they also say: f you upgrade from a OEM or retail version of Windows 7 or Windows 8/8.1 to the free Windows 10 upgrade this summer, the license is consumed into it. Which suggests as soon as you upgrade, you lose the (retail!) license. So the upgrade would leave you with basically just a hardware tied Win 10 install (= oem), and no more Windows 7/8 license. That would be quite conflicting with what they said Anyone else any information on this ? ps. Oh wow, 4 posts between me starting and finishing this one, must be a hot topic
Absolutely, don't trust them! Depends on who is "they". The only 100% definitive source to answer this question is the Windows 10 Software License Terms, and that says exactly what you just said. OEM to OEM, Retail to Retail. The license rights say that you can move it. That is separate from what you are able to do in practice. Again, depends on who is "they". This phrase, "consumed into it", pops up on the Internets often. It's a very misleading phrase, which doesn't have legal significance and for example it doesn't appear in the License Terms. When "they" use this term, they are referring to the fact that the underlying Windows 7/8 license and the Windows 10 upgrade license are inseparable, the latter is conditioned on the former. In license terms, it means you can't use both Windows 7 and Windows 10 at the same time, you use either one or the other. E.g. you can't install Windows 7 on one computer, upgrade to Windows 10, then install Windows 7 again on another computer and use both at the same time. The Windows 10 installation is hardware-bound in practical (activation) terms, but not in licensing terms. The two are separate.
This: (http : // ) answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-windows_install/how-do-i-transfer-windows-retail-license-after seems to suggest: - You can only move Win 10 to another PC by first installing Win7/8 first, and then upgrading, within the one year period. - Your Win7/8 key can be recovered after a Win10 upgrade, but you might have to get on the phone But again, I'm not sure how authoritative these answers are.
Phone activations are magical when they are working but like everything else the last two days they are getting hammered to death and it is hit or miss whether it will work right now.
This is the crux of the matter, and thanks for the clarity. A lot of people don't take the time to fully understand the Eula agreements. Few even read it. Understandably it reads like some long legal speak but it contains the do's and don'ts. Similar misunderstandings came up with the retail windows 8 pro and the free key upgrade to windows 8 pro MCE. The same idea with the latter being conditioned on the former. I recall you could phone in and within fair reason get your original win 8 pro retail activation back. Agreed Would it surprise people if after the year long free offer, a retail bought windows 10's serial is still 'consumed' after installation and activation. So you still get the same old generic key like everyone before. But, Microsoft will allow you to go and transfer that same key to another computer , with the key being 'consumed' again and the new HWID saved, and the old one deleted ?
Sadly yes. Microsoft has actually been at the forefront of a recent drive to make EULAs more readable and understandable. The Windows 10 Software License Terms for example are written much more clearly, in plainer English, than any Windows EULA before. It is lot less legal mumbo-jumbo than these things used to be. You can actually read and understand it now with some care and attention.
What I understood from the thread so far: If a user has Win 7 or Win 8.1, retail or OEM, activated, he/she can upgrade to Win 10. Win 10 activation is hardware-bound (can re-install fresh on same device without key since key was saved online during the upgrade). For retail Win 7 and Win 8.1, they can still install the said retail OSes in another device (provided they uninstalled it from the device that has the key on it first) and then upgrade it to Win 10. This newly upgraded device will have its own unique hardware-bound activation key. Is this correct?
Yes, the machine must be activated with 7, or 8, upgraded to 10 first, then it can be clean installed.
so Licensing issues aside, technically, a user can validate an unlimited number of devices, one device online at a time. Then, later, take them all online simultaneously since they all have their own unique hardware-bound key. Seems to me, retail rights in an OEMish way (legalized piracy?). If so, MS (if they can/cannot detect any piracy) is turning a blind eye and allowing widespread upgrade to gain market share, and hoping to enliven their smart phone market share. my2cts.
A good read from the Win 10 Eula Section 4 B of the Windows 10 Licensing Agreement seems to say you can! 4.b. Stand-alone software. If you acquired the software as stand-alone software (and also if you upgraded from software you acquired as stand-alone software), you may transfer the software to another device that belongs to you. You may also transfer the software to a device owned by someone else if (i) you are the first licensed user of the software and (ii) the new user agrees to the terms of this agreement. You may use the backup copy we allow you to make or the media that the software came on to transfer the software. Every time you transfer the software to a new device, you must remove the software from the prior device. You may not transfer the software to share licenses between devices.>